


Growth

by forgetme



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death mentioned, Chocolate Box Exchange 2020, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Treat, spoilers for all of Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 15:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22718293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetme/pseuds/forgetme
Summary: Guy and Kakashi over the years.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 12
Kudos: 217
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Growth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TemporaryDysphoria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TemporaryDysphoria/gifts).



One.

Hatake Kakashi is the most talented kid in class, the son of Konoha’s White Fang, and therefore destined to become a legendary shinobi. He, Might Guy, son of Konoha’s Eternal Genin, is the least talented kid in class, therefore destined to become a failure and a dropout.

Guy shifts restlessly in his seat in the very last row in the back of the classroom – no point in someone like you taking up space in the front row, teacher said. His eyes are glued to Kakashi’s back. Kakashi is sitting up very straight and very still. Guy also straightens and presses his knuckles into the tops of his thighs to keep from fidgeting. Under the bandages, his knuckles burn and throb, like his heart, Guy thinks, with the eagerness to challenge his new rival – for this is what they are destined to be! And also maybe a little from the scrapes and bruises from his earlier training.

“Hatake Kakashi!” Guy bellows, as soon as class is over, running breathlessly down the hallway after the boy genius, “I challenge you!”

Kakashi doesn’t turn around. When Guy runs faster, Kakashi breaks into a run as well.

Guy chases the other boy around the entire village, until, just outside the main gate, he finally manages to grab Kakashi’s shoulder, causing the clone to disappear in a cloud of smoke.

That evening, Guy goes to the training grounds and pummels the posts until the bandages on his hands are copper with blood and dirt, until his fists throb like his heart, until he forgets the feeling of reaching for something only for it to slip through his fingers.

Two.

“…”

Hatake Kakashi, Konoha’s youngest chūnin, son of Konoha’s disgraced White Fang, says nothing when Guy challenges him to a spar. But he looks at Guy now and when he punches Guy, Guy can feel the pain, Kakashi’s pain echoing through him, rippling out from his chin, into his jawbone, through his teeth, all the way to the crown of his head.

At the age of seven, Guy has been fast-tracked to genin, he told Kakashi, who said nothing. They sparred. Guy lost.

Guy lies in the dirt, panting, his brand-new forehead protector dented by Kakashi’s fist. Guy is the youngest on his team, he told Kakashi that, too.

Kakashi towers over him. “My dad said,” he drawls and Guy’s eyes go wide because Kakashi has not mentioned his father since his death, “that there’s going to be a war soon and that mediocre kids like you are going to be promoted quickly because they make good fodder. He told me to tell you not to take the promotion. But I don’t care. You can go die if you want to.”

That night in bed, Guy lies awake, forehead protector clutched to his chest, his fingers tracing the dent in the metal, until his father slips into his room, late from his mission, and gently takes it away from him.

Three.

For years, people anticipate the war breaking out. “Soon,” they say, “not long now. That damned White Fang!” 

When it finally does, it swallows everything.

The war that began – if the population of Konoha is to be believed – with the death of the White Fang ends with the death of the Eternal Genin.

There is nothing for Guy to bring home from the battlefield. The memory of the light in the sky, a sunset in the middle of the day, a rain of smoldering ashes.

His father’s name is carved into the stone. It goes above Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito.

Kakashi is at the hospital and can’t make it to the ceremony. 

It’s funny, Guy thinks, Hatake Sakumo was brave and heroic a thousand times and a coward once. Might Duy was a coward and a failure a thousand times and brave and heroic once, and yet Hatake Sakumo is remembered as a disgrace while Might Duy is celebrated as a hero.

This is what he tells Kakashi when he visits him at the hospital the next day.

This is what Kakashi replies: “So what, people are stupid and have short memories. Now go away, Guy. I want to be alone.”

Four.

In Anbu, after the kyūbi, Kakashi is a force of nature. He becomes a legend young. His many names are whispered with reverence and fear. He is cold and sharp and merciless, and the village wields him like a blade.

Meanwhile, Guy’s original team has been disbanded. They were one of the few squads that survived the war, but Konoha is short on shinobi and so they are reassigned.

Guy makes jōnin young, surpassing any expectations anyone had for him – of course, no one with the exception of his father ever had any.

Guy learns to laugh with his hands on his hips, head thrown back, teeth bared. He has been adopting his father’s mannerisms to cover up his own fretful nature, to quiet the voices in his head that tell him he is a failure, more importantly to quiet the voice that tells him Kakashi will shatter.

People are wary of him. After everything, they still see him as a weirdo. The younger ones don’t understand what he is trying to be, the older ones flinch because he looks and sounds like his dead father.

The gates burn under his skin.

The few times he spars with Kakashi, Kakashi slices him up with his tanto, his skin parting almost willingly for the icy metal of the blade.

Five.

The day Kakashi quits Anbu, Guy challenges him to a spar. They beat each other senseless on training ground nine and lie in the grass after, bleeding and bruised and strangely at peace.

Six.

Every year, Kakashi fails a set of academy students, while Guy secretly watches. Usually they spar after, Kakashi demonstrating just how little of a challenge the brats offered. When Kakashi runs and dodges and makes clones, Guy feels as though his friend is chased not so much by him but by the specters of all those he lost.

“Huh, remind you of anyone?” Kakashi asks one day, standing by the window overlooking the academy grounds.

Guy’s gaze follows his friend’s to the little boy with the braided hair, who is screaming his head off as the other children laugh at him. Later, he learns that the child is called Rock Lee and that it is his dream to become a shinobi despite his inability to mold chakra.

Rock Lee will be his student and Guy will help him achieve his dream.

Kakashi sighs when Guy announces this to him and says, “Well, he’s pretty much a copy of you already, so.”

And Guy smiles and laughs and doesn’t correct his friend.

The truth is, when he looks at young Rock Lee, he sees his father.

Might Guy only ever tests one team. He passes them.

Seven.

Unlike Guy’s, Kakashi’s team is a disaster. There is too much soldier in Kakashi and too little teacher. The growing buds of Konoha’s future need to be tended with love, but Kakashi has very little to give. Guy has the scars to prove this.

When he loses them to other masters, Kakashi feigns apathy. He accepts long missions that take him away from the village for months at a time.

Guy himself is busy with his team, his pride.

He finds that he doesn’t have to pretend or exaggerate happiness and confidence anymore because he truly is happy and confident. Even at his relatively young age, he is one of Konoha’s greatest. His taijutsu is unrivaled. One of his students is the first of his peers to be promoted to jōnin.

When they do see each other, Guy finds himself challenging Kakashi to eating contests, to races, to a memorable dance off in the middle of the village.

The scars Kakashi has left on his body over the years slowly fade with age.

Eight.

The war that returns Kakashi’s eye is the war that takes Guy’s leg, more importantly it is the war that claims Neji’s life and brings Sasuke back from the brink of insanity.

Guy misses Neji's funeral because he is in a coma.

When he wakes up, Neji’s name has been cut into the stone, Neji’s ashes have been buried and Guy’s remaining students are sitting by his bedside, weeping with grief and relief. Guy cries an entire ocean of tears and snot and it still does not feel like it’s enough.

Kakashi visits often. He sits in a chair by Guy’s bed, pretending to read.

“Thanks Guy,” he says, _winking_ , which apparently is something he does now, “even Tsunade won’t bother me here.”

Whenever he isn’t around – which is not often – the nurses will gossip about how handsome he is – a bachelor!– and that he will probably become the next Hokage, now that Tsunade has announced her plan to retire – and he’s single! Can you believe it?!

Guy can believe it because Kakashi is terrible. He is reads porn in public; he brags about using Guy’s hospital room to hide from official business. He slouches in his chair and uses his so-called charm to get the nurses to supply him with tea and snacks. He suggests they use Guy’s injury to get discounts at bars and restaurants as soon as he’s released from the hospital.

When Guy _is_ released from the hospital, the first thing he does is visit Nejji. The second thing he does is wheel himself to the training grounds and start over from scratch, trying to forget the feeling of life slipping through his fingers.

Nine.

Kakashi finds him there, in the dirt, bleeding, the ground muddy where he drenched it with his tears. Kakashi sits down wordlessly, back leaning against one of the training posts.

It takes Guy a couple of painful minutes to bring himself into a similar position next to him. He hurts. But he appreciates that Kakashi doesn’t offer to help him.

“I told them I’d do it if they put my father’s name on the stone,” Kakashi says. “And they said yes.”

Guy lets out a long, shaky breath.

The sky is reddening as the earth slowly lifts them from the sun. Light gleams off the spokes of his wheelchair, casting spindly shadows.

“I think you will be a great Hokage, my Rival,” Guy says. He truly does.

Carefully, he shifts his leg, anticipating the pain and accepting it.

Kakashi’s hand settles on his, his fingers slipping into the spaces between Guy’s, interlacing them. “Let’s be honest, it’s probably going to be a huge pain,” Kakashi says conversationally. He glances over, eyes searching Guy’s face. “You’ll be by my side though, right?”

Kakashi’s fingers are warm and solid. When Guy squeezes them, Kakashi squeezes back.

“Always,” Guy says.


End file.
